Life – Page 19

Categories: Life

My Phone Habits

For the month of March, I tracked my phone usage. I wanted to see exactly where I was spending most of my time on my phone because my daily usage is on the high side when compared with others (like Elisabeth, who regularly spends just 1-1.5 hours on her phone daily, which is astonishing to me!) Even if my phone usage is high, does that really matter if I’m spending it doing things that bring me joy, like listening to podcasts and playing Happy Color? How does my phone usage really break down when I take an entire month into account? These were the questions I wanted to answer.

Each day, I wrote down the overall time spent on my phone as well as the number of pickups I did and notifications I received. And then I broke down every app and how much time I spent on them that day. Here’s what March 1st looked like:

Then, I started another tab in my spreadsheet where I listed out my apps in specific categories and would input the total number (in minutes) per day. Yes, it was a very intensive process and I was very happy when April 1st rolled around and I didn’t have to worry about continuing detailing my phone usage in this way!

At the end of the month, I tallied up all of my numbers and it gave me this breakdown:

Here is what all of these categories entail:

Phone Games (41%) – Happy Color, Candy Crush Soda, Match 3D, 1010!, and Wordscapes. (These are my favorite phone games to play!)
Listening Apps (24%) – Overcast (podcast app), Libby (audiobooks), YouTube (ASMR videos to fall asleep), and Spotify.
Social Media (12%) – Instagram, Facebook, Feedly, Goodreads, Messenger, and Patreon.
Reading (8%) – Serial Reader, CNN, and Chrome (which I use as my web browser).
Social (8%) – Marco Polo (video app I use to keep in touch with friends), Messages, Mail, Phone, and Maps. (Funnily enough, FaceTime is not counted as “screen time” by Apple.)
Productivity (3.5%) – Apps that I only really use for a purpose, like Notes, Clock, Calculator, Settings, and Todoist.
Photos (2%) – Lightroom (how I edit photos), Camera, and Photos.
Shopping (1%) – Starbucks, Ubereats, and Target.
Health (1%) – My Wahoo app, which is what I use to track my cadence on my spin bike, and Sleep Cycle, my alarm clock app.
Work (>1%) – Just some work-related apps I have on my phone that I will use throughout the day if needed.

After looking over my data from March, it became clear to me that I spent a lot of time on very few apps. It also became clear that my phone was counting my time as double if I had a podcast playing on Overcast (or an audiobook on Libby) while also doing something on my phone like playing a game. And I spend a lot of time playing games while listening to a podcast. So that can skew my overall screen time.

There are five apps that I spend my most time on:

It’s not surprising that Happy Color is where I spend the most time. Most days, I spent over 2 hours on that app! (Happy Color is a coloring app and it brings me immense joy and comfort, lol.) It’s also not surprising that Overcast was my second-most-used app. I love listening to podcasts and listen for hours every day.

Want some other maybe-fun stats? I gotchu:

On average, I pick up my phone 86 times a day.
On average, I get 43 notifications a day.
My highest phone usage day was Saturday, March 19th—8 hours, 58 minutes (!!!)
My lowest phone usage day was Monday, March 14th—4 hours, 22 minutes

All in all, detailing my phone usage throughout the month was a good exercise and it helped me to better understand my phone habits. (For example, as much as I love Happy Color, I sometimes use it as a crutch to not do the things I need to do.) After seeing my phone stats, there are a few changes I made:

I put time limits on Instagram (30 minutes) and Happy Color (90 minutes). These are two of the apps that I can sometimes spend too much time on, and it’s been so, so helpful to give myself this time limit.
I limited notifications. I used to get push notifications for so many things, especially things I didn’t need. Now, I only get notified for CNN/ESPN breaking news alerts, my dating apps, phone/messages, and Ubereats.
I changed my Do Not Disturb parameters to turn on from 9:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m., dim my lock screen, and hide all notifications. When it turns on at night, it’s a signal to my brain to get to bed and in the morning, it’s a signal to not use my phone first thing.

I also want to get better about putting my phone in my bedroom to charge at night. It’s so easy for me to get sucked into coloring a page on Happy Color or scrolling through Instagram when I should be getting ready for bed.

What I learned most from looking at my phone usage throughout the month is to not beat myself up too much for how much time I spend on my phone. I spend a lot of time alone, and it makes sense that I would be on my phone during that time. When I get lonely, it helps to scroll through Instagram (sometimes) or to listen to a podcast and play Happy Color. If I had a partner or kids, I’d (hopefully) be on my phone a whole lot less. When I’m with friends or my family, my phone is always in my purse. One of my pet peeves is people who are on their phones (especially people who are texting on their phones!) around me, so I try my best not to do the same. If my phone is out, it’s usually because I’m taking pictures.

I’m glad I did this exercise and I’ve now turned off the Screen Time alerts that tell me how much phone usage has increased or decreased from week to week. I’m doing just fine.

Do you feel like you spend a lot of time on your phone? What is your most-used app?

Categories: Life

Time Logging | March 21-27, 2022

I spent last week time logging, and I really enjoyed the project! I downloaded Laura Vanderkam’s 168 Hours time management worksheet to log my time. I chose the worksheet that was broken down into 15-minute increments and while that made it very, very tedious to log my time, I think it allowed me to dig into the nitty-gritty of my week. I kept the worksheet up on my laptop so I could easily log my time during the day. When I was away from my computer, I made simple notes in my Notes app. I also tried to keep track in my head as I was doing things. (i.e., “OK, you woke up at 6:15,” or “You started reading at 3:00.”) It really wasn’t that difficult and I also didn’t put too much pressure on myself to get everything exactly perfect. I am not a perfectionist when it comes to stuff like this, so it helped me just enjoy the process and not take it too seriously.

One thing to note is that I tend to dual-task throughout my day, but this week, I tried to not do that just to make categorization easier. Plus, since I was working in 15-minute increments, that was the right amount of time to do one task before moving onto something else. (For example, 15 minutes of cleaning and then 15 minutes of computer time.) There were times when I did dual-task (like eating dinner while watching TV) but I would categorize the time as my main task. For example, if I watched TV while eating dinner, eating would be the category since I was watching TV because I had dinner in front of me.

All in all, it was a very rewarding process and think it would be a really fun exercise to do on an annual basis. My goal is to log the same week every year and to see how things change (or don’t change).

Here’s how my week broke down in categories:

I won’t go through every single category since most of them are self-explanatory. Instead, I’ll give you guys some big picture thoughts:

I spent 37% of my week unconscious.

Between my nighttime sleeping and my near-daily naps, I spent over a third of my week asleep. What can I say? I love to sleep! I regularly logged around 7 hours of sleep a night, and also logged many afternoon naps. There were some cat naps during the workday (45 minutes, on average) and then some really long naps on the weekend (4 hours). And no, taking a 4-hour nap during the day does not affect my sleep at night. I think I must be part-cat, with how much sleep I need! If I don’t set an alarm during my weekend nap, I will sleep for a really long time. Hence why I spent so much of my week unconscious!

I spent 21% of my week on my hobbies (reading, computer time, playing on my phone, blogging, watching TV, watching ASMR videos).

I broke down my hobbies into a few categories:

Reading – The hobby that got the most attention this week. Yay!
Playing on my phone – Most of this is playing Happy Color or phone games while listening to a podcast.
Computer time – Reading blogs, reading Reddit, reading emails (I subscribe to a lot of e-newsletters), responding to blog comments, working on my blog recategorization project, etc.
Blogging – I only worked on two blog posts last week (one published on Thursday, the other the following Monday) but it still amounted to 5 hours of my week!
Watching TV – Just over 4 hours of TV watching this week. That’s probably lower than average.
Watching ASMR videos – I spent about 30 minutes almost every night watching ASMR videos before going to sleep. They calm me down so much! (The exception was Saturday as I was exhausted when I went to bed and didn’t need any help falling asleep!)

It’s fun that I was able to devote almost a quarter of my week to my hobbies! The benefit of being single and childless, haha.

I spent 4 hours total on the phone with my mom.

I was curious as to how much time I spent talking to my mom on the phone on a typical week. We FaceTime each other constantly, usually a few times a day just to catch up. (Keep in mind: We live near each other and I also see her in person multiple times a week.) This week, it was 4 full hours of random chats throughout the week.

I spent 10 hours being social.

It was a big week for being social! I don’t think I normally spend 6% of my week being social, so this is likely an anomaly. It will be interesting to compare this category from year to year. There was lots of mom time, game night with my brother and nephews, and a reading date with a friend.

I spent 4% of my week on my morning/nighttime routines.

It was surprising to me how much time I spent on my morning/nighttime routines. Obviously, I know it takes me a while to get through my nighttime routine, but my morning routine can be just as long. It was definitely eye-opening to see how long these routines take me, and to give myself a friggin break!

All in all, this was quite a fun exercise for me. I enjoyed detailing out my time in this way and learning how much time I spend in certain areas of my life. This was a pretty normal week in my life, although it was a week when my workload was much lower than usual and when I had more social plans than usual, but nothing will be 100% normal during any week, will it? It will be fun to compare this week to the same week in 2023!

Are you a napper?

Categories: Life

Stitch Fix | Spring 2022

It’s time for my quarterly Stitch Fix post! I was really happy with this Fix, even though I only kept 3/5 items. This time around, I bumped down my sizes by one and I thought most everything fit really well. The shirts were a little on the small side, but I think that may have to do with my stylist choosing petite tops. Petite sizing is a must for me in dresses and pants, but not so much in shirts. So I hope that by switching to regular sizing in tops, my stylist will choose shirts that fit me much better.

For now, let’s take a look at everything that was in my Fix this month.

Ribbed Knit Jumpsuit ($58)

I was incredibly excited when I saw this jumpsuit. I’ve never owned a jumpsuit, mainly because finding one that fits me right is hard for someone who is fat and short. This jumpsuit fit perfectly! It was the perfect length and didn’t pull weird in any way. It was sooo comfortable, too. Even still, I was torn on whether or not to keep it. Would I really wear this? (I’m usually a jeans-and-tee kinda gal.) And we’re firmly entering summer season here in Florida so wearing long pants is growing more and more uncomfortable. I decided to wear it around for a bit to see how I felt about it, and gradually, I discovered that the waist was quite heavy and sat awkwardly on my stomach. In the end, I decided to return it.

Brushed Knit Dress ($48)

I asked for a fun dress in this Fix, and I was thrilled with the piece my stylist selected. It’s lightweight and I love the flirty skirt. I felt really good in it. It’s a little “booby,” which is what I call anything that has a low neckline and shows off a bit too much of the girls, but I’d probably wear a lightweight jacket/cardigan over it if I were to wear it out somewhere. This was a very easy keep!

Khaki Cargo Shorts ($78)

I loved these shorts so much! I only have two pairs of shorts right now and one of those pairs is quickly developing holes. So I need more shorts! I was really excited to see these in my Fix and even more excited when I put them on. They fit perfectly and feel great. While they are way more than I would ever spend on a pair of shorts, I know I will get a ton of use out of them. Keep, keep, keep!

Knot Front Knit Tee ($34)

I wasn’t sure about this shirt before I tried it on, but once I did, I was in love. It’s so comfortable and fits great. The little knot at the front is a fun detail. And I love the scoop neckline. This one was a very easy keep for me.

Ruffle Back Knit Tank ($48)

I was pretty sure this shirt wasn’t going to fit me and it didn’t. I think the shirt is a smidge too small for me, but I also think it’s supposed to be a tighter fit with the sides hitting right above the hips. I prefer my shirts to have a looser feel and hit me a little below my hips. I didn’t even have to think about this one—an easy return.

While I didn’t keep everything in my Fix, the pieces I did keep are going to be lasting additions to my wardrobe, and that’s all I can ask for! In my next Fix, I asked for another sundress, maybe a romper, and another pair of shorts. It should come right before my trip to Niagara Falls, so hopefully I get a few pieces to take with me!

Categories: Life

Two Years Later

For me, March 16, 2020 was the start of the pandemic. It’s when things got really real. It was a Monday and the Friday before, my company held a company-wide meeting to discuss shifting to remote work for the time being. At first, it was only going to be for a week… and then maybe a month… and then maybe until July… and now, here we are, two years later. Still in a pandemic, still working from home.

I’ll be honest with you: The pandemic hasn’t been too hard on me. There are a variety of reasons for that, all of which point to my incredible privilege:

I was able to easily do my job from home.
I didn’t lose my job or even worry about losing my job.
I genuinely enjoy being alone and didn’t have trouble adjusting to a WFH lifestyle.
Nobody close to me got seriously ill or died from Covid.
As far as I know, I did not get Covid. If I did, it was an asymptomatic case.
I don’t have kids, so I didn’t have to worry about remote learning or trying to work when daycares were closed.
I was able to easily access the vaccine when it became available to me.
I am not immunocompromised so I know the vaccines and boosters protect me pretty well.
My mom lives close by and is not in a high-risk group, so I was able to keep her in my bubble and see her regularly. (Same goes for my brother.)

Another thing to note is that my anxiety disorder hasn’t been impacted too much by this pandemic. I don’t know why, but after the first six months of the pandemic when things felt especially dire and the medical community kept changing guidelines constantly, I entered this state of “what will be, will be.” Again, this is likely because I’m not high risk and do not have high-risk parents to worry about. I am very, very lucky in this regard. I understand my role in protecting the immunocompromised community, however, so I wore my mask even when mandates were lifted. I got vaccinated and boosted. And I tried to be as safe as possible when I was out in public (no big gatherings, quarantining when necessary, etc). I know a lot of people struggled with a fear of being in public where even a trip to Target could trigger an anxiety spiral, and that had to be so hard. With the way my anxiety can be, I am very grateful this wasn’t something I had to worry about too much.

One of the most difficult parts of the pandemic for me has been weighing decisions. At one point, everything I did felt like a moral decision. If I go to that restaurant, does that make me a bad person? If I expand my circle just a little bit, does that mean I’m not taking Covid seriously? If I attend this event, will people judge me? Is it ok to travel, or will people think I’m being selfish for being on a plane during an outbreak? Everything felt so fraught, every decision delivering a moral implication.

It’s been two years and it finally feels like there’s a light at the end of this very long tunnel. I’d like to believe we will enter an endemic phase of Covid sometime this year, but of course, that’s hard to predict. Most scientists don’t seem to think that’s coming anytime soon, especially with variants continuing to circulate. I am hopeful, though. And that’s something I didn’t have this time last year.

It’s been a hard two years for so many people. My heart aches for the people who lost loved ones to this virus, for the immunocompromised population who still feel really scared and unsure of how to protect themselves, for the kids who had their lives upended (graduations and school dances canceled, rites of passages put on hold), for the healthcare workers who took care of Covid patients at the detriment to their own health, for the frontline workers who delivered our food and supplies when we couldn’t leave our homes. I don’t know how we heal from the trauma of these past two years. The scars of the pandemic are going to live in us for a long, long time.

For me, the scars have less to do with the function of living during a pandemic and more to do with watching how people I know and love have reacted. Those who have refused to get vaccinated, citing conspiracy theories and unproven research. Those who didn’t take the pandemic seriously at all, not because they thought it was a hoax but because they just wanted to live their lives without taking into account other people. It was especially disheartening to see how churches reacted to the pandemic. Not all churches of course, and I’m not sure why I expected better from Christians (many of whom still support Trump), but adhering to CDC guidelines is not “living in fear.” Trying not to spread a deadly virus by masking and not gathering in large groups and getting vaccinated is the least we can do.

It’s been a long two years. It’s hard to remember what life was like before COVID-19. Sometimes, I think about the end of 2019 and how we kept hearing about this strange virus making its way through China. I never thought it would be something that would kill millions of people, put life on hold, and change the world as we know it. I never thought I’d live through a global pandemic. I never thought it would become normal to see people in masks as I’m grocery shopping or to meet up with friends and not be able to hug them.

I have a lot of hope that when March 2023 rolls around, we won’t still be living through the pandemic phase of this virus. Normalcy has begun to slowly return to our lives and it’s starting to feel less and less weird to walk around without a mask on, to gather in larger groups, to travel, to make plans. So, here’s to two years and to no more crazy variants to worry about and hopefully an endemic distinction from the WHO. Who knows what this next year will bring, but I’m going to hold on to my hope that things will be better than they are today.

(Of course, I wrote this whole post over the weekend, only to find out on Tuesday that a new variant similar to Omicron has caused massive lockdowns in China and is already circulating globally. So. I guess we’ll see what happens.)

Categories: Life

My Ideal Schedule

I’ve been struggling with my schedule for a long while now. Working from home was always my dream (as someone with high sensitivity and social anxiety, being able to control my environment and not be around people all the time has done wonders for my mental health). While I never thought a global pandemic would be the reason I started working from home full time, that’s just what happened and I am thankful that I really, really enjoy WFH life. I also realized that work from home devops jobs, as the remote work trend creates opportunities for individuals worldwide, fostering economic growth and inclusivity.

But my schedule? It’s been all over the place since March 2020. At first, I wasn’t worried about giving myself some sort of schedule. We were all struggling through the scary early days of a pandemic and just making it through each day was enough. But it’s now been almost two years of working from home and it’s more than time for me to have a better daily schedule/routine.

Before I talk about what I envision my ideal schedule being, let’s first discuss what my schedule looks like these days:

6:30ish: If it’s a workout day, I’m up around 6:15-6:30 to do my workout. It’s either a 30-minute spin class followed by a 1-mile walk or a 1-mile walk followed by a 20-minute strength class. (All on the Peloton app.) My goal is always to be up and out of bed by 6, but I usually snooze my alarm until 6:30.
7:30ish: Breakfast time. I make eggs (either fried or scrambled) and cinnamon toast. I usually have iced coffee, too. These days, I read blogs while eating breakfast.
8:30ish: I wash all of my breakfast dishes, brush my teeth, and do my skincare routine. Sometimes I run out of time to do all of this, so I have to do it during a work break.
9:00-6:00: Work! Throughout the workday, I take lots of breaks. (Typically, I work for about an hour and then take a 15-20 minute break and continue to do that throughout the day, depending on the meetings I have.) The break may entail reading on the couch, doing a cleaning task, reading blogs, or working on a blog post.
6:00-6:45: I’m usually wrapping up my workday sometime around 6, maybe closer to 6:30 if I get caught up in a work task. And then I need a moment to veg on the couch before starting dinner. I’ll either listen to a podcast and play Happy Color on my phone, or read my book. Sometimes, my mom and I will FaceTime with each other.
7:00ish: I make dinner and eat it while watching something on TV. I’ll usually watch two episodes if it’s a 30-minute show.
9:00ish: Since I’m usually not sitting down and having dinner until 7:30 or later, I often don’t start preparing for bed until after 9. My nighttime routine involves tidying up my apartment, washing the dinner dishes, scooping litter boxes (I do this every other night), brushing my teeth, and doing my skincare routine. And I am so slow about it! Usually, I’ll set a time for 10 minutes and try to do as much as I can, and then I’ll take a break. (I try not to sit down with my phone because then I’ll get sucked into social media and I’ll be on the couch for dayssss.)
10:30ish: I’ll finally finish up my nighttime routine so I can go to bed! I’ll read for a bit and then turn on ASMR Youtube videos to help me fall asleep.
11:30ish: Lights out.

Kinda chaotic, kinda exhausting, eh? One thing to note is that my work schedule is very flexible. While I need to be logged in and available during “normal” work hours (9am-5pm), I don’t have a specific time I have to start working. I could start my workday much earlier so that I could log off around 4 or 5, but I just really like having a slow, relaxing morning. My mornings used to be so busy and rushed when I worked in an office, and I hated it. Ideally, I’d start my workday at 8 so I can log off by 5, but that just feels very ambitious right now.

Here’s what I want my days to look like:

6:00am-7:00am: Some sort of exercise. It would be nice to make this a normal part of every morning. Three days a week (likely Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays), I’d do a “hard” workout: a 30-minute spin or strength class followed by a 1-mile walk. Two days a week, I’d do two loops around my apartment (nearly 1.5 miles) followed by a short, gentle stretching class.
7:00am-8:00am: Make breakfast for myself, eat while reading blogs, and tidy up the kitchen afterward.
8:00am-8:30am: Take a shower, do my skincare routine, and make my bed.
8:30am-5:30pm: Work! It would be nice to log in by 8:30 so I can be done for the workday before 6.
5:30pm-6:00pm: Reading block. I really crave a bit of breathing room between logging off work and starting my evening routine. Having a half-hour to lay on the couch and read would feel so rewarding.
6:00pm-7:30pm: Make dinner. Watch one 30-minute show while eating. Clean kitchen afterward. Instead of spending your precious time scrubbing floors, consider outsourcing this task to a local floor cleaner.
7:30pm-8:00pm: Blogging block. I can use this time to work on a blog post, read blogs, respond to comments, answer emails, etc.
8:00pm-9:00pm: Do my nighttime routine (clean litter boxes, tidy apartment, do my skincare routine/brush teeth).
9:00pm-10:00pm: Get into bed. Read my book and watch ASMR videos on Youtube until I’m sleepy.
10:00pm: Lights out!

Looking at this schedule makes me sigh with happiness. I want this schedule! There are just a few new habits I need to implement to make it work:

First, I need to stop hitting the snooze button. It’s just so tempting to hit snooze and give myself 10-15 minutes to wake up. I’m just not the type of person who can get out of bed right when my alarm goes off. I need at least 10 minutes to wake myself up. How I’m going to solve this: I’m planning on re-downloading the Sleep Cycle app. I used to use this app religiously many years ago, but stopped because it required leaving my phone under my pillow all night long and that was annoying. I did like that it tracked my sleeping habits, though, and had a very gentle alarm that would slowly start going off about 15-20 minutes before I set my wake-up time. The alarm starts going off when I’m in my lightest phase of sleep, so that the wake-up isn’t so jarring. (And with the new version of the app, I can leave my phone on my bedside table!)
Second, I need to stop using my phone in the morning. I’ll usually spend a few minutes in the morning sleepily reading any notifications that came through overnight, scrolling through Instagram, and going through my emails. Then I’ll bring my phone in the bathroom with me as I do my morning pee where I’ll play Happy Color. I’m embarrassed to admit how long I can stay in the bathroom as I try to finish up a picture I’m coloring, but it’s very ridiculous and leads to me not starting my workout until 6:45 or later. So, anyway, I really need to get in the habit of not using my phone in the morning. How I’m going to solve this: I’m going to change my Do Not Disturb settings to last until 8 a.m. That way, I won’t see any notifications when I wake up. I can just turn off my alarm and then not use my phone until my workout is over.
Lastly, I need to work through my nighttime routine in a much more efficient manner. I am sooo very slow with my nighttime routine. In reality, it shouldn’t take me more than 30 minutes, but I can stretch it into an hour and a half if I’m not careful. I need to be more efficient so I can get into bed at a reasonable hour. How I’m going to solve this: With a timer! When I start my nighttime routine, I’m going to set a 15-minute timer and try to get as many things done in that time as I can. Then, I’ll set a 5-minute timer for a short break. And then I’ll set another 15-minute timer. I think setting a timer not only as I go about my nighttime routine but also as I take a short break will help me get through it much, much quicker. (Maybe I will one day get to a place where I can speed through my nighttime routine without breaks, but right now, I need those breaks.)

I really hope that, by figuring out what my ideal schedule looks like and what changes I need to implement to make sure I can actually make it happen (i.e., stop hitting that snooze button!) that I can enjoy a schedule that more closely aligns with my goals and needs.

Do you have any bad habits related to your daily routine that you’d like to change?